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Institutional Racism Unraveled By Andile Ngcaba At Dimension Data

Institutional racism has been unraveled at Dimension Data Middle East and Africa, an IT services and solutions company, according to its former chairperson, Andile Ngcaba. Ngcaba accuses Dimension Data of racial discrimination relating to unfair remuneration practices.

This was first reported by Business Day on 28 August 2017 with Ngcaba confirming to iAfrikan that he has a matter pertaining to discrimination and unfair remuneration practices lodged against Dimension Data with South Africa's Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA).

The main issue is that Ngcaba discovered in May 2016 that he’d been excluded from a long-term incentive scheme that his white colleagues at executive level benefited from, including some junior white staff members. Ngcaba has said that Dimension Data proposed a settlement which he refused and eventually decided, after exhausting all internal processes, to take the company to the CCMA.

Ngcaba's Convergence Partners, an investment company focused on the Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) sector in Afrika, announced that it had exited its investment in Dimension Data on 27 July 2017. The effective date of the exit was reported as the end of June 2017 with Ngcaba also stepping down from the various positions he held within the company.

In a statement to iAfrikan Ngcaba emphasized that "It should be noted that the decision to exit Dimension Data as an empowerment partner was a natural consequence of the unwinding of a BEE transaction and is completely unrelated,".

Convergence Partners made its first investment in Dimension Data in 2004, this was part of the Dimension Data's B-BBEE (Broad Based Black Economic Empowerment) transaction. Also interesting to note is that Dimension Data is currently engaged in discussions to conclude a new BBBEE deal with the deal expected to be concluded before the end of October 2017 according to the company's CEO, Grant Bodley.

It has not, thus far, been revealed who Dimension Data is negotiating their new BEE deal with but the current matter involving its former empowerment partner is likely to raise some concerns.

Note: This is a developing story and we will update accordingly as time goes on and new information becomes available.

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